Pet Scan

Well, if the length of the blog entry were to be proportional to the number of things of interest which have occurred since the last entry this one would have ended at “if”. As pictured above, one of our military working dogs (her name is Winni) developed a sore paw, so we brought her in for a quick fluoroscopy of her paw. She was a good patient in general, and although I was intrigued to have the opportunity to assist with veterinary anesthesia, in the event no restraint beyond the comforting embrace of her handler was required. Sigh. You’ll be glad to hear there was no fracture and all seems to be well.

Weather has varied from hot, dry, windy and dusty to very hot, humid and still. Hard to decide between being steamed and being sand-blasted as being the more pleasant state of affairs – fortunately we don’t have to choose!

I got a note from my friend DJ, one of my San Diego based officers who is deploying to Afghanistan. He too has a blog, which deals mostly to this point with his 3 months of training at Fort Riley, Kansas in preparation for his imminent deployment. If the topic of military guys headed overseas interests you, you should check him out at "danieljmt.blogspot.com". Of course, then come back …

The big news here at the EMF is the arrival of the replacements for the majority of the folks here. Most of the officers and enlisted are here on a 9 month rotation – the current folks arrived last November and will head out in a couple of weeks. It is a sort of sociologically interesting phenomenon that a career in the Navy affords one the opportunity to observe repeatedly. That is, as we are rarely in one spot longer then a couple of years, we are always replacing or being replaced – or observing the process. It is interesting to watch the new folks especially as they transition from juvenile wide-eyed newbies never more than a couple of steps away from their incumbent sponsors, to confident-appearing veritable teenagers just itching to get out from under the old guy’s shadow. A symmetrical sort of disengagement takes place on the opposite side as colleagues once passionately engaged in the matters of the day transition into absent minded, slightly vague creatures chafing to be gone. Doubtless this growing impatience for the change to be effected is the product of evolution or benevolent Providence, assisting we sublunary beings to accommodate the unceasing change which is our lot.

Well, I can tell when the philosophy starts, it’s time for me to go. I should mention in passing that today marks the 25% mark for my shorter (7 month) deployment. Well, 26.5% actually, but who’s counting?

Ciao!